New York comptroller and leaders of Assembly, Senate fear Gov. Cuomo's budget hides a power grab

View full sizeFile photo / AP, 2012New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers his second State of the State speech at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany in this photo from Jan. 4. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday that while Cuomo's budget proposal shows fiscal restraint, it also appears to hide a grab for more control of the budget by his office.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal as a continued plan for fiscal restraint, but along with top legislative leaders warned that the governor also wants to use the budget to grab power and reduce public oversight and accountability in the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars.

DiNapoli also said Cuomo’s plan for 2012-13 would reduce transparency in how the public’s money is spent and consolidate more power under the governor. DiNapoli said his fellow Democrat wants to exempt agency contracts from the comptroller’s review, limiting a standard practice that provides better oversight and public disclosure.

Cuomo’s budget also would “dramatically increase” the governor’s power to move funds from one agency to another with less scrutiny and without regard for the original and publicly stated intent behind spending the money, DiNapoli said after releasing his analysis of the budget now being negotiated with legislative leaders. DiNapoli said it’s always possible to strike the right balance between efficiency and accountability. He said state officials “should be very, very careful before we undercut some of that transparency.”

Cuomo’s budget director, Robert Megna, said in a statement that the budget requires state agencies to be more efficient. He said there is flexibility to “allow for a range of operational measures and ... improve functions such as procurement, real estate, and information technology.”

Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver weren’t buying it. “The Legislature is part of the government in Albany,” said Skelos, a Nassau County Republican. “I believe when we appropriate and make a decision jointly with the governor, money should be spent a certain way, that’s the way it should be spent. If the governor thinks it would be more efficient to spend it another way or another direction, then come back to the Legislature and we’ll work it out. But the Legislature has to be part of that process.”

“We have concerns about the specific language contained in the proposal,” Silver said in a statement. “However we are willing to work with the governor to craft a bill that will meet our shared goal of creating efficiencies in the state budget,” said Silver, a Manhattan Democrat. In an interview, he agreed with Skelos that the Legislature must be part of the process.

DiNapoli said Cuomo also would put $12.9 billion of his proposed $15 billion New York Works infrastructure program “off budget.” Off budget means borrowing and spending wouldn’t be subject to as much public disclosure or input by the Legislature. “The passage of an on-time budget through an open, observable process is important,” according to the report released Tuesday. “But this progress should be accomplished without abandoning meaningful oversight, appropriate checks and balances, and adequate protection of public dollars.”

Cuomo missed deadlines in December under the 2007 budget reform act, saying he needed more time to gather updated fiscal data. The reforms were enacted to end the secretive process involving the governor, the Senate majority leader and the Assembly speaker controlling spending that amounts to about $135 billion a year, a tradition in Albany not found in most states. Cuomo already plans to miss the deadline for his amendments to the budget proposal. Instead of the 21-day deadline after his budget submission to allow more public review and debate of the spending plan, Cuomo plans to release his amendments at the old 30-day mark.

DiNapoli also warned Cuomo’s budget is depending on billions of dollars over several years from the federal government that aren’t certain as Washington debates its own spending cuts. He said the governor’s New York Works infrastructure repair project is heavily dependent on federal funds that might not exist after federal budget cutting. In all, DiNapoli says Cuomo’s budget assumes $1.7 billion in federal funds for his highways and bridge repair proposal. Another $5 billion for state and local governments over nine years also is uncertain.

DiNapoli also said the state’s bottom line has been helped by the income tax increase for millionaires enacted in December. He said that will bring in $385 million now, during the final quarter of the 2011-12 fiscal year, and $1.9 million in the fiscal year beginning April 1.

DiNapoli said his analysis shows Cuomo’s proposed budget would cut future deficits in half, to $7.4 billion through the 2015-16 fiscal year. That’s far smaller than recent deficits. A year ago, Cuomo and the Legislature closed a $10 billion gap, much of it caused by lost federal stimulus aid. He says the current fiscal year still has a $2 billion gap that Cuomo and the Legislature must close by April 1, but notes that’s far smaller than in past years because of recent actions.

But hard times are apparent. Without the December tax increase, DiNapoli says tax collections would have been $702 million less than originally projected. That’s a result of the slowing economic recovery in the last half of 2011. “The greatest vulnerability at this point is what’s happening with the economy, the slow recovery and what could be happening in Europe,” DiNapoli said. “There are risks out there.”